Hongdae gomtang restaurant for a quiet weekend lunch: Anok

It had been a while since I'd set a weekend lunch date with a friend. We agreed to meet in Hongdae.

This time I wanted somewhere quiet and comfortable to eat Korean food and talk. Since it had been so long since we'd seen each other, I wanted a solid meal and to hear how my friend had been doing.

Anok: about 7 minutes' walk from Hongik University Station

That place turned out to be Anok. It's within walking distance of Hongik University Station, which made meeting up easy — about 7 minutes on foot according to the store's own info. When you're making plans in Hongdae, that kind of accessibility quietly matters, doesn't it?

It's a Korean restaurant set in a hanok (traditional Korean house) down an alley. I was searching for a good Hongdae spot for guk-bap (soup with rice) and was pleasantly surprised to find a space with this kind of atmosphere. I came for a bowl of soup and ended up feeling like I'd picked a great venue too. The quiet, old-fashioned feel matched exactly the mood I was going for that day.

When choosing a restaurant, food usually comes first for me, but atmosphere plays a pretty big role depending on who you're with and what kind of time you want to spend. That felt especially true meeting a friend after so long.

What we ordered at Anok: clear gomtang, Pyongyang naengmyeon, braised pork tail

Next, the menu. At Anok we ordered clear gomtang, Pyongyang naengmyeon, and pork tail jjim — one familiar soup dish plus two dishes I was trying for the first time.

A single bowl each would have been fine, but since we were reuniting after a while, I felt like we needed something to share too.

Clear gomtang: light broth with deep flavor

First up is the clear gomtang. Anok reportedly uses its own house-made broth as the base for both the gomtang and the naengmyeon. The broth was clear but the flavor ran deep. Personally, I felt this was a really well-chosen lunch dish that day.

Clear doesn't mean light here. Eating with that warm broth, I definitely felt full and satisfied. You know that feeling when you sit down to a bowl of gomtang like this and think, 'good call on lunch today'? That's exactly how I felt.

Pyongyang naengmyeon: my first taste of its mild broth

Next, the Pyongyang naengmyeon. Honestly, this was my first time trying it. I was curious what it would taste like, and the mild, plain flavor turned out to be its charm. I finally understood what naengmyeon fans mean when they talk about that particular kind of plainness.

As a first-timer, I'd say don't go in expecting a strongly seasoned flavor — instead, enjoy the mildness itself. That's what I ended up liking about it. And then came another first challenge: pork tail jjim.

Braised pork tail: tender yet chewy

The name alone sounded a bit unfamiliar, but once I tried it, it reminded me of jokbal (braised pig's trotters). I think the soft-yet-chewy texture is really the appeal of this dish. This one especially stuck in my memory for its texture — soft to eat but with enough chew to be fun, and it paired well alongside the gomtang or naengmyeon. Choosing it as something to share with my friend was a good call too.

Looking at the three dishes together was interesting. The gomtang stood out for its deep, filling broth, the Pyongyang naengmyeon for its mild, plain flavor, and the pork tail jjim for its soft, chewy texture — each left a different impression.

Anok's opening hours and closing day

For anyone planning a visit: per the store's info, Anok opens at 11am Tuesday through Sunday and is closed on Mondays. Worth keeping in mind when setting up a weekend lunch.

Is Anok a good spot to meet a friend in Hongdae?

That's my story of visiting Anok, a Hongdae Korean restaurant known for guk-bap (soup with rice), with a friend. Personally, I'd recommend the gomtang for a hearty lunch, the Pyongyang naengmyeon when you're craving something plain and noodle-based, and the pork tail jjim as something to share.

Easy to walk to from the station, with an old-fashioned hanok atmosphere on top — it suited a long-overdue catch-up with a friend really well. It should work for anyone looking at both food and atmosphere together.

Hope this helps anyone looking for a comfortable Korean restaurant in Hongdae. Anok shines even more as a first stop before heading to the trendy cafés nearby for round two.